PatientSafe Solutions Partners with HIMSS Analytics for Benchmark
Study on the State of Clinical Communication and Workflow

Industry evolving away from single-purpose devices and applications

February 28, 2018 04:33 PM Eastern Standard Time

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PatientSafe
Solutions, a leader in clinical mobility solutions for the
healthcare enterprise, is proud to release the first benchmark study on
the State of Clinical Communication and Workflow in healthcare
organizations, administered by HIMSS Analytics. The study, which
surveyed over 300 clinicians, clinical informaticists and IT
professionals, shows the industry amidst a mobile evolution as
single-purpose communication devices become obsolete and
smartphone-based platforms enable tighter integration between
communication and clinical workflow needs. The survey took the pulse of
practices nationwide asking respondents about current usage and future
plans for mobile clinical communication.

“From what I see in the survey results, it looks like the primary use of
mobile clinical communications solutions today is texting and other
forms of communications, versus leveraging ‘smart’ capabilities -- like
easier access to patient data, that are available today,” said Joyce
Sensmeier, MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, FAAN, Vice President of
Informatics for HIMSS North America. “To me, clinicians are still
reliant on mobile devices for general communications, as opposed to a
detailed clinical care focus, which makes sense given we’re still early
in the evolution of smartphone use in healthcare settings.”

According to the data, 51% of IT respondents plan to implement
smartphones for clinical communications, 43% of them in the next 24
months. 53% of IT respondents have plans to extend their mobile
communication platform beyond secure messaging, with 71% intending to
first tie nurse call and telemetry alarms into those mobile platforms.

Over 90% of clinicians and informaticists surveyed believe a unified app
that integrates communications with clinical workflows will achieve
better clinical, financial and operational outcomes. 77% of IT
respondents report that they would like to integrate their
communications solutions with clinical workflows and documentation.

“We have always believed in the promise and critical importance of an
integrated smartphone-based solution that can deeply unify clinical
workflow and care team communication,” stated Si Luo, President and CEO
PatientSafe Solutions. “The survey validates our understanding of the
key impediments within organizations that prevent them from achieving a
truly integrated solution. One of the biggest takeaways from this survey
is that healthcare institutions can save money and achieve better
outcomes if they stop treating selection and deployment of
communications products as just a departmental-level project and start
treating it as a cross-functional enterprise-wide initiative.”

The survey findings suggest that many early Clinical Communications and
Collaboration (CC&C) adopters have yet to fully realize the potential of
available solutions, often because first generation technologies had
singular functions such as secured texting and could not fully integrate
with clinical systems or real-time clinical workflows. These limitations
have led to frustration for IT teams struggling to build a scalable
infrastructure and consolidate devices and for clinicians who are forced
to juggle multiple, single-purpose applications and devices.
Participants in the survey also indicated that, looking forward, they
will start to demand more clinical workflow and care coordination
capability from their clinical communication vendors.

The survey was administered in November 2017 and included 302
respondents in clinical (49 percent), IT (31 percent) and informatics
(20 percent) roles, with 31 percent working in multi-hospital health
systems, 29 percent in stand-alone hospitals and 22 percent in critical
access hospitals. The distribution of organizations participating in the
survey mirrored that of the 5,465 hospitals nationwide, where there is
roughly a 40 to 60 percentage split between smaller and larger
organizations.

PatientSafe will be sharing results in detail at a HIMSS18 Breakfast
Panel Reception, Wednesday, March 7, 7:30 a.m. in the Grand Luxe Café at
the Palazzo Hotel, RSVP
here. For key results and an in-depth exploration of survey
findings, download the infographic
and whitepaper here.

About PatientSafe Solutions

Based in San Diego, Calif., PatientSafe Solutions is leading the way in
clinical mobility solutions for healthcare. PatientSafe delivers
measurable safety and quality improvements through a mobile platform
that extends an organization’s EHR, clinical and communication
infrastructure, and fits seamlessly into care team workflows. The
company’s PatientTouch® platform simplifies care team collaboration by
consolidating text, talk, alerts, EMR data, clinical workflows and
customizable care interventions, all in one mobile app, on one device,
to eliminate harm, reduce waste, and improve productivity. For more than
a decade, PatientTouch has helped clinicians both in and outside the
hospital streamline care delivery, increase quality, and lower
costs. For more information, please visit the company’s website at patientsafesolutions.com.

About HIMSS

HIMSS is a global voice, advisor and thought leader of health
transformation through health information and technology with a unique
breadth and depth of expertise and capabilities to improve the quality,
safety, and efficiency of health, healthcare and care outcomes. HIMSS
designs and leverages key data assets, predictive models and tools to
advise global leaders, stakeholders and influencers of best practices in
health information and technology, so they have the right information at
the point of decision.

HIMSS drives innovative, forward thinking around best uses of
information and technology in support of better connected care, improved
population health and low cost of care. HIMSS is a not-for-profit,
headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with additional offices in North
America, Europe, United Kingdom and Asia.